The inconceivable cross-border mergers in banking | Opinion | EUROtoday

The Italian UniCredit offered this Monday a takeover bid to exceed 30% of the capital of the German Commerzbank, of which it already owns 26%. The operation, for an quantity of 35,000 million euros, represents the continuation of the motion carried out in September 2024, when the financial institution led by Andrea Orcel took benefit of the sale of German Government shares to enter the capital. Berlin was not solely suspicious of the intentions of the transalpine agency, however was completely against the transaction taking off. UniCredit, at all times with lead toes, launched the provide with a minimal premium of 4% and made it clear that it seeks to attain “a stake in Commerzbank of more than 30% without controlling the entity.” It appears troublesome to measure phrases extra and step extra rigorously.

Such warning illustrates effectively the problem of cross-border mergers within the European Union. José Manuel Campa, nonetheless president of the EBA at the moment, summarized in an interview with CincoDías in September the sensation of the best monetary neighborhood our bodies on this matter: “Right now we have operations where there are governments actively involved in Germany, Italy, Spain and potentially Portugal. The positive side is that transactions are taking place. It is not positive that the banking operations on the table have a national and not a pan-European logic. We are concerned and frustrated that there are no cross-border mergers.”

Indeed, there are apparent points that paralyze them. The most blatant, the absence of a single European market, which makes the synergies of any integration troublesome. An casual chat with any government within the sector is sufficient for them, for instance, to deliver to the desk the problem of replicating in a single European market the merchandise that they provide with out issues in one other. What’s extra, regulation is simply the tip of the iceberg of an setting that, as Campa recalled, has completely different insolvency regimes, variations in ranges of client safety or completely different labor legal guidelines inside a protracted etcetera of range.

In the tip, the query is one among political will to advance harmonization, at all times from the conviction of the advantages of the European mission. That’s the place the fault is. Community regulators conflict with the pursuits of the politician in energy, who’s in favor of integrations on paper, so long as they don’t happen in his personal home. It is forgotten on this false protectionism that measurement, at a enterprise stage, issues. European banks are removed from the main positions within the sector worldwide. It’s time to take step one.